Election night: 52nd congressional district

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Peters and Saldana are now separated by 216 votes with 33.8 percent of precincts reporting.

Bilbray is maintaining his nearly 20-point lead over the two Democratic challengers, but who he’s matched up against in November probably won’t be known anytime soon.

UPDATE: 10:03 P.M. -- Peters and Saldaña still neck and neck

With 56 precincts reporting, Peters and Saldaña are now separated by 258 votes, or less than 1 percent of votes counted.

Bilbray has 41.5 percent of the vote.

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The two Democratic challengers to incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray in the 52nd congressional district are separated by less than one percentage point in early returns Tuesday night, while Bilbray holds 41.5 percent of ballots cast.

Of the Democratic challengers, former San Diego City Council President Scott Peters has 22.2 percent of early absentee ballots and former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña has 21.8 percent.

If Bilbray doesn’t manage to reach a majority of support, he’ll proceed to a November runoff against whichever other candidate finishes in second.

The early returns represented 59,026 votes from 12.7 percent of the district’s 432 precincts.

The San Diego Registrar of Voters released its initial tally of early absentee ballots shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m.

That count, which generally represents 25 to 30 percent of votes, will be the first clue to which candidates will advance to the November general election, or if anyone will be able to pull together the majority of votes needed to win outright.